SMALL CAP MOVERS: UK Oil & Gas soars 50% on fresh Horse Hill testing round; LightwaveRF slides after CEO departure announcement

UK Oil & Gas Investments added almost 50 per cent yesterday after UK authorities gave it the green light to kick off the next round of testing at the Horse Hill discovery in south-east England.

Horse Hill, more colloquially known as the Gatwick Gusher, has been the subject of a lot of hype in recent years, with some involved in the project claiming there are tens of billions of barrels of oil underfoot.

The programme approved by the UK Oil and Gas Authority is a follow up to the 2016 testing, which saw aggregate oil flows at a rate of 1,688 barrels per day over short periods (three 30-90 hour tests).

Green light: UK Oil & Gas Investments added almost 50% yesterday after UK authorities gave it the green light to kick off the next round of testing at the Horse Hill discovery

Green light: UK Oil & Gas Investments added almost 50% yesterday after UK authorities gave it the green light to kick off the next round of testing at the Horse Hill discovery

UKOG said this longer-term flow testing campaign would help the company to achieve its target of first stable oil production in 2019.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the explorer used the share price jump to tap the markets for some more cash, raising £5.5million at a sizeable discount to yesterday’s closing price of 1.5p.

Shares eased lower after that announcement, although they were still up 20 per cent for the week at 1.23p.

Waste-to-energy specialist EQTEC was the week’s top riser though, climbing 61 per cent to just over a penny after it won a new contract worth significantly more than its market capitalisation.

The company, whose technology converts waste into synthetic gas which is then used to generate electricity, signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesian energy group CITRA to supply its gasifier technology for a 12-megawatt power plant in Vietnam.

The contract is for one-year and is estimated to be worth somewhere between £17-19m, not bad for a company still worth less than £15m even after this week’s surge.

Audioboom shares returned to trading on AIM this week, having been on the sidelines since February.

Back then, the podcast platform told investors it was looking to raise £155m in order to complete a reverse takeover of US audio tech group Triton.

Anyway, the company, which describes itself as the 'leading spoken word audio on-demand platform', couldn’t drum up the support it needed to complete the deal and so had to back out, costing it £700,000 in break fees.

That left Audioboom short of cash, meaning major shareholder Candy Ventures – Nick Candy’s investment vehicle – had to step in with another £500,000 convertible loan, while the firm also raised £4.5m at 3p a share last week.

Big noise: Audioboom shares returned to trading on AIM this week, having been on the sidelines since February

Big noise: Audioboom shares returned to trading on AIM this week, having been on the sidelines since February

Shares returned to trading yesterday, closing the week at 2.4p – a third lower than their pre-suspension price.

A bullish scoping study at Savannah Resources’ Mino de Barroso lithium project in Portugal propelled the stock up to seven-year highs.

The explorer confirmed yesterday that the cost of building the mine will be around $109m, which will be recouped in under two years with production of 175,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate – a source ore for lithium.

Consultant Hatch estimated that on a base case price of $685 per tonne and an eight per cent discount, Mina do Barroso, which currently has a mineral resource estimate of 14m tonnes at 1.1 per cent li2O, is worth $356m and will generate revenues of $1.56billion over 11 years of production.

Savannah boss David Archer revealed last week that the company will look to raise around €100m to fund the construction, which is slated to begin next year, followed by first production in early 2020. 

Shares climbed almost 50 per cent to 13.3p.

Bight outlook: A bullish scoping study at Savannah Resources’ Mino de Barroso lithium project in Portugal propelled the stock up to seven-year highs

Bight outlook: A bullish scoping study at Savannah Resources’ Mino de Barroso lithium project in Portugal propelled the stock up to seven-year highs

That was reflective of another decent week for the junior market during which the AIM All Share hit a fresh all-time high once again. 

The small cap index added 6.9 points, or 0.6 per cent, to close the week at 1,104.5.

The blue-chips weren’t too far behind either, with the FTSE 100 rising 35.8 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 7,719.3.

ValiRx was one of the stocks pushing the AIM All Share higher. 

The drug developer surged 48 per cent to 3.3p after saying it is continuing 'advanced discussions' with a number of possible partners to help it press ahead with the development of its VAL401 lung cancer candidate.

Results earlier this year from a phase II trial showed the drug improved overall survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, while it also had a 'measurable improvement' on a patient’s quality of life.

Sweet pill: ValiRx surged 48%  after saying it is continuing discussions with possible partners to help it press ahead with the development of its VAL401 lung cancer candidate

Sweet pill: ValiRx surged 48% after saying it is continuing discussions with possible partners to help it press ahead with the development of its VAL401 lung cancer candidate

The next stage in the development process is to get a partner on board to help take VAL401 through late-stage studies and, hopefully, on to commercialisation.

Smart home solutions provider LightwaveRF shocked the markets this week after it announced the surprise departure of its chief executive on Monday morning.

Andrew Pearson left the company with immediate effect, having only been at the helm for little more than a year.

He will be replaced by Jason Elliott, currently the chief sales officer at energy data analytics firm Onzo, by 'no later than mid-September', while chief financial officer Kevin Edwards will keep watch until then.

Shares in the group, which counts Apple, Google and Amazon among its partners, fell 16 per cent to 10.5p.

A profit warning from XLMedia sparked a sell-off in the digital marketing group this week.

XL, which has been shifting its focus away from lower-margin media buying and focusing on more profitable operations, said underlying trading has been 'stable' so far this year.

But regulatory changes in Australia and Europe mean revenues and pre-tax profits will both be lower than expected, prompting shares to dip by 20 per cent to 117p. 

 

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